Solution processed nonvolatile polymer transistor memory with discrete distributing molecular semiconductor microdomains as the charge trapping sites

Abstract

In this work, we demonstrate a polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) based organic thin-film transistor nonvolatile memory, in which the four-layer stacked core architecture is sequentially processed by a method of fully solution spin-coating. The floating-gate layer consists of separated molecular semiconductor 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl)pentacene (TIPS-Pen) microdomains distributing in the matrix of polymer poly(styrene) (PS), which is formed by phase-separation during the spin-coating from their blend solution. At the writing/erasing operation, the holes transfer between P3HT active layer and TIPS-Pen microdomains, which results in an prominent memory property, with a memory window of 14 V, memory on/off ratio larger than 350, reliable memory endurance over 500 cycles and a good retention capability over 5000 s with obvious distinguishing reading current at binary 0 and 1 states.